The Haul

Thanks for the greetings, by the way. It’s my birthday today, and I keep forgetting that I keep posting something on my birthday or close to it. It’s probably a gift to myself by the productivity gods. This time, however, I actually bought myself gifts.

First off, my biggest of thanks to the people behind Onegai Onii-chan Japanese Hobby Shop for bringing the biggest life into the fandom here in the PH, not just solely on Love Live! Sorry I had to be the timidest and the least interactive customer to pick up the goods. I just am.

Around late-April/early-May, I was right on the middle of my applications to go to Japan (a topic I’d like to cover sometime and somewhere else) when I got urge to grab some Aqours-related stuff. With little hesitation, and alongside the fact that I already ordered a prize fig from then since January, I ordered the goods. And leave it to ol’ P3rcY to only grab them once all 3 of them arrived.

After a day of just staring at what I’ve just bought, I’ve finally opened them. Let’s go through them one by one.

Young Jump Weekly #24

Thinking about it, this sounds really stupid. It’s Aqours-related stuff, and at the same time, it isn’t. By that, I mean, it’s just your regular ol’ Japanese magazine, which serializes manga. I forgot all about this when I placed the order and remembered it as I read on. All I have to say is that I guess I got caught by the hype of it all with the Aqours seiyuu cast being the cover.

However, the fact that I didn’t realize this matter was what made this purchase better.

discovering other titles like “dakara otaku ja nai tteba!”

It’s no surprise that I’m an avid learner of the Japanese language (just took N4 last week hope I passed yay). Another physical copy of material from Japan written in the native language is a great asset to helping further my knowledge in it. I have yet to read everything, but when I started seeing familiar titles in the magazine, I got caught off-guard, causing me to hype so much. Sure, I only know some series here by title like Kingdom and Tokyo Ghoul, but when I saw this gem, I stood up instantaneously, screaming uncharacteristically in my room for a whole 5 minutes.

Minamoto-kun Monogatari is serialized in Young Jump.

This series goes way back for me two years ago, when I wanted to write something new for the blog, and only ever teased it. It’s on 253 this issue. As of writing, it’s supposed to be at 259, with the English translations falling way behind, and me stopping somewhere around 130 or 150. I should get back to this! XD

Side note: If you want the full gravure of the Aqours seiyuus and more, grab Young Jump Gold. Super general. Also here’s a free mini photo-book.

SQ Banpresto Ohara Mari

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The first out of all of them that I ordered. It’s pretty much self-explanatory. It’s a prize figure. I had no hesitations of buying it because Mari looks so beautiful in that dress with a matching sun hat with that pose. This outfit is from her unidolized Rare card in LLSIF (Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM). If it appeared elsewhere beforehand, let me know. XD

She’s just some centimeters short from the prize figure by Sega. Though, I’ll point it out on how dirty this figure easily got, and that’s even before I took her out of the plastic. Her entire exterior is white, making dust and dirt on her very conspicuous. Her backside, and even her base caught black dirt before I even touched her. I was greatly bothered, also, by her legs which weren’t polished properly enough. All I could think of is that that’s a risk I took for buying something that’s shiny white.

I’m currently learning  from ruo how to take decent photos of figures, so expect the product of that some other time. XD

Aqours CLUB CD Set

Yes, I grabbed this. More on why some other time.

Here are the contents according to the Love Live! official Twitter account:

The CD itself, containing the Next Step! Project theme song “Landing action Yeah!!”.

A serial code to register for Aqours CLUB through the official website.

An Aqours CLUB passport.

Cool fill-ins akin to a real passport

A 24-page mini photo-book.

And a special pin.

The fun part, for me, was trying to sign up for Aqours CLUB in the website that’s in Japanese. It’s the first time ever that I’ve read a Terms and Conditions page. XD (not like I understood much of what I read, but that’s a start)

Here’s the main page of the site. I think it’s only up to here that’s showable? Nonetheless, it’s a cool way to be able to support the fandom. In a perspective, one can call this my next step towards the fandom. And even in life in general.

Landing action Yeah!! isn’t one of my favorites from Aqours, but I think it sets the vibe really well for the Next Step Project. The lyrics are giving off that vibe as well, with the chorus close to an invitation for an aspiring idol to take the next step to chasing their dreams.  I even tried to not listen to the full version and the solo versions once people from everywhere started posting it. Well worth it. XD

you can send messages to the seiyuus. time to make all those nihongo classes pay off. XD

20 years taught me a lot of things and shaped me in ways I wouldn’t have imagined. With that, until the next year comes, when the 0 becomes 1, thanks to everyone for all the support, both personally and here in the NOHK Blogs. I look forward to more things to come with this small project of ours. I’m under your care for another joyful year. See ya’!~

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